Masked robbers broke into an Uxbridge pub with weapons and attacked the landlords and their son before making off with cash.

Wearing balaclavas and carrying a crowbar, a hammer and a 'kitchen-style' knife, the three men broke into the family's flat, above The General Eliott, in St John's Road, at around 4am on May 12.

They used a ladder to climb into one of the couple's teenage sons' bedrooms and demanded he fetch his father, landlord Gary Carpenter.

The men then forced Mr Carpenter, 55, his wife Sue, 51, and their four children – aged 12, 15, 17 and 19 – into a bedroom, where one guarded them with a hammer while the others raided the building.

Joint landlord Mrs Carpenter told getwestlondon how the drama unfolded after she was woken by the break-in.

The General Eliott Pub, in St John's Road, Uxbridge

She said: "I could hear shouting and the dogs were barking, so I came out. And then I saw the three men, or boys, in their masks.

“They climbed through my son Jack's bedroom window. He's only 17. They woke him up and told him to 'go and get your dad'. He was petrified.

“He went and woke up their dad and then they punched him [Mr Carpenter].

“My son Daniel came out of the bedroom then as well, because he could hear the dogs barking and them shouting: 'Where's the safe? Where's the safe?'

“So they clonked him on the head with a crowbar. He [needed] 10 stitches in the head."

Mrs Carpenter said the men herded the family into 19-year-old Daniel's bedroom, where one loomed over them with the hammer, saying: 'Keep back, keep back. I'm not afraid to use this.'

She added: “The guy with the hammer had the hammer above, keeping us all on the floor in Daniel's room, and the other two were running around the flat looking for money and things.

“They stole three phones, because they couldn't find any money, so my son gave them his wages and they took the float that was in the till.

"They were just chucking things around. You could tell they were like kids. They were amateurs."

"They were just saying: 'Where's the money? Where's the money? Where's the safe?' I just kept saying: 'We haven't got any money'.

"At the time I wanted to run for the guy with the hammer, because we're all quite big, and then I saw the other guy, who was darting around with this great big 12-inch knife in his hand, so I thought: 'You can't do that, because you never know. I'm not going to damage my children'.

“So we left them and said we haven't got any money and that was it. Then all they wanted to do was get out."

Masked robbers used a ladder to break into the flat above The General Eliott Pub through the upstairs window

Mrs Carpenter added: “I wasn't really that scared. I was more frightened for my kids. In my head I thought: 'I don't care what you do to me, or what you do to my husband, but you touch my children...' That's all I was thinking: 'You touch my kids and you're dead'.”

The men – described by police only as white at this stage – stole £80 from the pub's cash register and £200 from a jar in one of the sons' rooms, according to Mrs Carpenter.

They fled through the pub's back door, but police, who were called at around 4.30am, do not know which direction they made off in.

Hillingdon Borough Burglary Squad is appealing for anyone who was in the area at the time of the aggravated burglary to call police.

Anyone with information should call DC Emma Butcher on 020 8246 1563, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org.